'Calm and professional' Heather uses her first aid training to help save a customer's life

Everyone at our Tamworth store is proud of our quick-thinking pharmacy dispenser Heather Rose who used the store's defibrillator and performed CPR to save the life of a customer who had suffered a cardiac arrest.

Heather, who's a trained first-aider, was helped by an off-duty paramedic and nurse. She says her training kicked in and adrenalin took over when she helped the 72-year-old woman who stopped breathing when she collapsed while shopping with her daughter. The customer is making a good recovery.

After a call went out on the public address system, Heather rushed over and, with the help of an off-duty paramedic, started to do CPR, while an off-duty nurse, who was shopping in the store, spoke to the 999 control room.

Forty-four-year-old Heather, who has worked as a dispenser for nine years and Asda for 18 years, said adrenalin just kicked in.

She said: "I heard the call for a first aider and did not expect it to be anything to be honest. But the woman had collapsed and had stopped breathing."

Heather grabbed the defibrillator and used it once to get a heartbeat back while she and the paramedic continued with CPR until the ambulance crew arrived.

She said: "I just switched off from everything else and just focussed on what I was doing. It seemed to take forever but I don't think it was too long. It seemed to go in slow motion. I'm just so glad we managed to save her."

After paramedics stabilised the woman, Heather stayed with her until she was lifted to hospital in an air ambulance.

Trading manager Wendy Bowyer, who was one of the first on the scene helped to comfort the patient's daughter, has nominated Heather for an award.

She said: "Heather was brilliant, but she is so humble. She just said that's what she was trained for. She was very calm and professional throughout.

"The paramedics said that without Heather the customer would have died."